The paper quoted Somalian Minister for International Co-operation Abdulkadir Abdi Hashi as saying: “We have spoken to a number of UK officials. Some have offered to help us with the future management of oil reserves.”

He also suggested the country was looking to British oil giant BP as a potential partner.

Chatham House analyst Adjoa Anyimadu warned that there was “already a lot of scepticism from parts of the Somalian community about the reasons for the sudden focus on Somalia” from countries such as Britain.

And Amnesty International said the London Conference on Somalia had not adequately tackled the dire human rights situation in the country which is threatening the lives of civilians including children.

Amnesty International’s Somalia researcher Benedicte Goderiaux said: “The recent surge in military operations increases civilians’ vulnerability to attacks and displacement and brings more arms into a country already awash with weapons.

“This is a lethal mix that could fuel further human rights abuses.

“At this conference we hoped to see more efforts to improve the safety of the Somali population.”

The Bishop of Djibouti and Apostolic Administrator of Mogadishu, Giorgio Bertini has said that the military intervention does not solve much concerning Somalia crisis: here.

The international conference on Somalia, hosted by the UK last week, was aimed at shoring up the legitimacy and providing a veneer of respectability to the new government selected—not elected—in September: here.

A History of Violence: the BP Oil Spill Trial. Brentin Mock, Bridge the Gulf: “U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier decided that in the civil trial against BP for their oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the oil company’s history of accidents and poor safety records won’t be admissible as evidence…. Poor folks in New Orleans and across the Gulf who are the victims and the accused of crimes don’t have the luxuries of BP to have their histories buried. That is evidence alone that there is inequity in the justice system”: here.